


The Empty Pillow Next to Mine

by pterawaters



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dreamsharing, Getting Together, Long-Distance Relationship, Multi, Post-Season/Series 03, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28031469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Jonathan knew that moving away from Nancy would turn their souldreams into nightmares, but he didn't think it would bethisbad. Nancy hated the fact that Jonathan had to choose moving with his family over staying with her, and did everything she could think of to get him back. Before Jonathan left town, Steve never remembered his dreams. But the dreams he was suddenly remembering couldn't be souldreams, could they? Jonathan and Nancy already had each other.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 10
Kudos: 68
Collections: Soulmates/Soulmarks





	The Empty Pillow Next to Mine

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the Soulmates/Soulmarks challenge over on the [Stoncy discord](https://discord.gg/vG9Nvzdhkf). Come join us if you want to vote on what next month's challenge should be!
> 
> The title for this song comes from the Incubus song "I Miss You," which is a great anthem for the whole story, tbh.
> 
> Big thanks to [wolfish_willow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfish_willow/pseuds/wolfish_willow) for the last-minute beta reading!
> 
> Warnings for nightmares including sharks, monsters, and the like. One minor drug reference. One very minor spoiler for season 4.

Nancy watched the moving van rumble away from the Byers house, Jonathan in the car behind it. Beside her, Mike said, “I still can’t believe she’s doing this to you.”

“She’s doing what she thinks is best.” Nancy tried to believe it, but she still had to wipe the tears from her face as they kept falling.

“But _California_?” Mike shook his head and sighed. “It’s so far. How does she expect you to sleep? What about Jonathan? To do this to her _own son?”_

 _“_ Don’t put me in the position of defending Mrs. Byers’ decision. I can’t.” Nancy tried to tell herself it was going to be fine, but her throat felt swollen shut and her stomach clenched painfully. Looking over at her brother, she told him, “You’re lucky you’re too young for souldreams.”

He shrugged, wrapping his arms around himself. The rest of his friends wheeled their bikes down the driveway, and when they turned, Mike waved for them to go ahead without him. “Not too much longer. When did yours start? Like a year ago, right?”

Biting her lip, Nancy nodded. “It’ll be a year next week.” She’d been sixteen, almost seventeen, when she and Jonathan had started sharing dreams. Most people started souldreaming sometime between sixteen and twenty-four. Nancy knew she’d been lucky to already be friends with her soulmate. She hadn’t had to spend years dreaming and looking for him. He’d been right there.

The downside was the fact that she’d already had a boyfriend at the time. Naively, she’d thought that just because being with Steve felt better than being alone, that meant they were going to start dreaming about one another. They hadn’t. Breaking up with Steve had been hard, but he’d understood. Everyone knew it was no use trying to break a soulbond.

Nancy hoped Steve started dreaming soon. He deserved to be happy.

She thought she did too, but she realized that happiness was going to be difficult to come by while beset by nightmares every night Jonathan was somewhere other than right beside her.

Maybe Joyce didn’t believe it would happen. As far as Nancy knew, Joyce didn’t have a soulmate. She wasn’t sure if her soulmate had died, or if Joyce had never started dreaming in the first place. Supposedly it could happen, but no one really talked about it ever.

“Come on,” Nancy said to Mike. “Let’s get your bike in the car. We’ll go home.”

Mike walked his bike over to the station wagon and picked it up, sliding it into the trunk as he said, “You know, if you want to steal the car and follow him to California, I don’t think anyone would blame you.”

Nancy rolled her eyes. “I think you underestimate Mom’s ability to blame me for anything and everything.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said with a little chuckle.

Getting in the car, Nancy took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she started the engine. It was only for the rest of the school year. Once she and Jonathan graduated, they’d be free to start building their life together. Nancy could put up with nightmares that long, at least. Right? People sometimes went years without finding their soulmate. Seven more months was do-able. It had to be.

~*~

Their first night away from Hawkins, Jonathan and his family stopped at a motel outside Kansas City. They shared one room, Jonathan closest to the door, sharing a bed with Will. Joyce and El shared the bed closer to the bathroom. It took Jonathan longer than it should have to fall asleep. He just kept…

Everyone always talked about how souldreams turned bad when you were too far away from your soulmate, so he couldn’t help but anticipate it. The first souldream he’d ever had, he’d been sleeping five feet away from Nancy in a motel not unlike this one. It had been a peaceful dream that left him feeling soft and out of it the rest of the day. Of course, he hadn’t figured out it _was_ a souldream until after he and Nancy had slept together. He fell asleep with her in his arms, and she was there in his dream, holding his hand as they walked.

The best moment of his life had been when he woke up to find Nancy grinning at him, asking him, “You had the dream, right? We were there together? At the fair? Holding hands?”

He’d smiled and told her, “I bought you cotton candy,” and that was it.

Nancy was his soulmate.

From his estimation on the map they were using to navigate their cross-country trek, Jonathan figured he was almost 500 miles away from Nancy now. How bad a dream would it be? When he was little, he’d had nightmares about all sorts of stuff. Usually it was some combination of Lonnie and whatever graphic movie he’d let Jonathan watch far too young, when Joyce was out of the house. Jonathan thought Lonnie must have been trying to toughen him up, like with the hunting trip and the rabbit.

None of it had “worked,” whatever that was supposed to mean.

Jonathan dropped off while thinking about how, at least in California, he’d be 2000 miles away from his father as well as from his soulmate.

The thing Jonathan first became aware of was the way his heart pounded and his chest hurt. His feet were wet, and he was on a boat. It rolled from side to side, a storm blocking out the sun and kicking up the waves. Someone was there with him, holding him steady with a strong arm. Jonathan’s other arm reached out toward…

“Nancy!”

The end of the boat was in the water and Nancy was clinging to a thin rail, her hands slipping. She was going to fall. She was going to slide right off the boat…

And into the mouth of a terrifyingly large shark!

“I can’t reach her!” Jonathan told the person holding his other hand. “I have to get closer! Come on!”

If the figure said anything, Jonathan couldn’t make out the words. The rain hit the deck of the boat so loudly, and the shark was biting through the planks. Oh, god! It was going to eat _all_ of them!

Jonathan thought the other person in his dream was male. He felt male. Jonathan could see where his hand was holding onto Jonathan’s arm, but he couldn’t see his face. “…get her!” the figure said, and together they slid closer to Nancy, Jonathan reaching for her, and the guy catching them before they fell too far.

“Nancy! Grab my hand!”

“Jonathan!” Nancy cried back. She reached for him, her fingers brushing his. Jonathan tried to grab them, but his hand was wet and slick, and so was hers. Nancy’s fingers slipped out of his grasp and she screamed, falling—

He woke with a start, soaked in sweat, heart racing. He knew it was just a dream, just a nightmare, but it had felt _so real_.

Jonathan got out of bed. He put on his coat and his shoes, taking the room key with him when he left. He walked around the motel parking lot three times before giving in and going to the pay phone next to the motel office. After pressing all the right buttons to make a collect call and giving his name to the operator, the call connected.

“Jonathan?”

“Jesus, it’s a relief to hear your voice,” he said, pressing his free hand into his pocket so it would stop shaking. “It felt so real. I _dropped_ you.”

“I slipped,” Nancy insisted. “It was just a dream. The shark didn’t eat me.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m trying to remember that.” Frowning, Jonathan had a thought. “Was it the shark from Jaws, do you think? From the movie?”

Nancy gave a surprised little laugh. “Yeah, maybe. Why?”

Jonathan shook his head. “No, just I— I was thinking about how Lonnie used to let me watch scary movies before I was old enough to see them. Jaws was one of them.”

“How old were you when you saw it?”

“Nine, maybe? Eight?”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.” Jonathan sighed. “I need to drive all day tomorrow. I should try to get more sleep.”

Nancy hummed. “Try not to think of any more scary movies, okay? I’ve got a test in the morning.”

Laughing softly, Jonathan said, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll try. I love you.”

“Love you too, Jonathan.”

“I don’t want to hang up.”

“I know what you mean.” Nancy paused for a long moment. “Maybe I’ll get a job so I can pay for the long distance calls. I miss you so much already.”

“Me too, Nance.” Jonathan had no idea how he was going to survive the next eight months. Maybe the same way he’d survived the past two years — by putting one foot in front of the other. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

There were still 1500 miles to go before he got to his new home. Well, his mom’s new home. Jonathan knew where his home was — with Nancy, wherever that may be. Was this as bad as the nightmares were going to get? Or when he was four times farther from her, were they going to be four times as bad?

Jonathan wasn’t looking forward to finding out.

~*~

Steve opened his eyes and looked over at the clock on his nightstand. 2:37. Huh.

That was a fucked up dream.

He’d been on a boat, right? And there was rain? And a shark? And other people he was trying to save from the shark?

It was already getting hard to remember.

Steve couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a dream, much less one that woke him up in the middle of the night. Weird. A little voice at the back of his mind wondered if it had been a souldream, if that was why he remembered it. But he only remembered the dream, not the people in it. And there’d been _people_ , not just one person. It couldn’t have been a souldream. Just a fucked up nightmare.

God knew that after the shit Steve had seen and done, he’d earned himself a few nightmares. They were finally starting to hit him. Fantastic.

Steve rolled over and went back to sleep.

The next day at work, Steve was putting tapes back on the shelves when he ran across _Jaws_. Just out of curiosity, he picked it up and looked at the back cover, which had a picture of that stupid shark puppet. It… couldn’t be, could it? Maybe? Steve brought the tape back up to the counter with him, handing it to Robin. “Guess what I had a dream about last night?”

“Richard Dreyfus?”

Rolling his eyes, Steve said, “No, doofus. The shark.”

“Doesn’t strike me as your type.”

Steve laughed and lifted himself up onto the counter. “I haven’t had a dream I’ve remembered since I was a little kid. Not even after all the…” Steve made a gesture that he hoped Robin would interpret as “Hawkins bullshit.”

“Guess you were due for one.”

“Guess so.” Curious, Steve watched Robin for a second as she scanned bar codes, checking in tapes that had come through the drop box overnight. “Have you ever had a souldream?”

“Me?” Robin laughed. “Yeah, no. Soulmates are a load of crap, anyway. One person? Who’s your perfect match? For your whole life? It seems _unfair_.”

Steve didn’t really understand what she meant by that, but he didn’t want to argue, so he said, “Yeah, totally. Unfair.”

For a while, he’d thought maybe he and Nancy would start sharing dreams. He’d loved her _so much_. More than he’d loved anyone else in his whole life. When she told him she’d shared a dream with Jonathan, he’d been devastated. He’d tried not to let her know. She’d just found her soulmate. Who was he to sour her happiness with his own heartbreak? Even if it had felt monumentally unfair at the time.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Robin asked, “Have _you_ ever had a souldream?”

Steve shook his head. “Nope. Guess I’m a late bloomer.”

“Supposedly,” Robin said, handing him a stack of tapes while she reached into the bin for more, “average age for getting souldreams is, like, 22. Some people are already married with kids when they have them.”

“What dumbass gets married to someone who isn’t their soulmate?” Steve asked, as if he hadn’t been about six months away from proposing to Nancy when she’d had her souldream.

“Straight people who can’t keep it in their pants and get pregnant,” Robin replied, her tone very nonchalant.

Grinning at the thought that came to him, Steve asked, “What if your soulmate is a guy?”

“It _better_ fucking _not_ be!” Robin cried, turning around and glaring at him. “A guy? With a _penis_? I would die!”

Steve laughed, and when Robin pushed him he laughed even harder.

“I hope _your_ soulmate is a guy,” Robin said. “See how you like it, asshole.”

Steve laughed again. “Yeah, right. A _guy_? Like who? What kind of guy would be _my_ soulmate?”

“Keith?”

 _“Keith_?” Steve laughed so hard he fell off the counter and had to catch himself with his hands on the grungy carpet. He told Robin with the biggest grin on his face, “I hate you.”

“Mm, I hate you too, dingus,” she replied, rolling her eyes. She pushed the video cart away from the counter. “Go put these away, would you? I need to plan yours and Keith’s wedding.”

Chuckling, Steve took the cart out into the store.

~*~

When Nancy’s alarm went off, she made herself roll out of bed. After that nightmare about the shark, there’d been one about school, and another about the mall food court getting blown up and starting on fire. Hoping she’d eventually get used to sleeping this way, Nancy took a cool shower and then stumbled downstairs. Her mother was making breakfast, and Nancy didn’t even ask before pouring herself some of the coffee her parents usually shared just between the two of them.

“Aw, sweetie,” Karen said as Nancy got the milk out of the fridge and diluted the coffee with it. “Didn’t sleep well?”

Shaking her head, Nancy took a sip of the coffee. It needed sugar, but Nancy didn’t feel like she had the energy to get it out of the cupboard. She took another sip.

“That phone call in the middle of the night?”

“Jonathan,” Nancy confirmed for her mother. “The nightmares started right away.”

Karen clucked her tongue. “I’ll talk to your father again, see if I can’t convince him that we need to move Jonathan in.”

“You’d do that?” Nancy asked, wondering why the hell her mother hadn’t agreed earlier, before Jonathan was _ripped_ away from her. “Even though I’m not eighteen yet?”

“You can’t very well keep your grades up this year if you’re not sleeping. Really, moving soulmates across the country from one another?” Karen clucked her tongue again. “It shouldn’t be allowed.”

Taking another sip of her coffee and finding it marginally less disgusting than before, Nancy said, “I really don’t think Mrs. Byers gets how bad it can be.”

“Maybe she’s forgotten.” Karen lifted the pan from the stove, pouring scrambled eggs into a serving bowl.

“Wait, she used to have a soulmate? When?”

Karen lifted her eyebrows and winced, giving Nancy the impression that she’d said something she wasn’t supposed to. Nancy looked right back at her mom until Karen relented. “He passed away very young.”

“Ah.”

The only things that stopped souldream nightmares were proximity and death. Maybe Nancy wasn’t _so_ upset to be plagued with nightmares. At least it meant that Jonathan was still alive.

“Anything in particular your dreams were about?” Karen set eggs, bacon, and a piece of toast onto a plate before handing it to Nancy and starting to assemble another.

Shrugging, Nancy said, “Lots of stuff. The shark from Jaws was trying to eat me at one point.”

Karen smiled and shook her head a bit. “Before your father and I found each other, our nightmares were mostly about IRS auditors.”

Nancy thought that was the most boring thing she’d ever heard of. “How is that scary?”

Karen laughed. “When I was eighteen, I thought the same thing! I mean, they always felt very real and serious when we were in it. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long before Ted and I met.”

Loading her fork with a bite of eggs, Nancy asked, “Did you recognize each other when you met?”

“Yes and no.” Karen brought her plate and sat across the table from Nancy. “The familiarity was there, but we didn’t _know_ until the dream we shared that night.”

“That had to have been strange,” Nancy thought out loud. “Feeling like you already knew each other? Jonathan and I were friends for a whole _year_ before we shared a dream.”

Karen finished chewing before she answered. “It was the most comfortable feeling in the world.”

Thinking about how she felt whenever Jonathan was around, Nancy nodded. “Yeah.”

She missed him more than ever.

~*~

While Jonathan was _able_ to finish the drive to California, he needed Will in the passenger seat talking to him _constantly_ to keep awake. That night, starting their two week stay in another motel before their rental house was ready, Jonathan collapsed onto the bed.

He got a fair bit of sleep before the nightmares began. This one started with Jonathan being fit for a costume in some kind of theater program. He had no idea what part he was playing, let alone what any of his lines were. “I can’t do this!”

“You have to! The dragon is going to eat all of us if you don’t!” Nancy said, wearing her own heavy-looking costume and stage make-up.

Jonathan took her hand and they headed for the stage. On the way there, some called out, “Hey! This way! We can get out of here!”

Jonathan shared a quick look with Nancy before following the person. The three of them ran and ran, the dragon coming after them, breathing fire on their heels.

Jonathan woke up and sighed in frustration before turning over and trying to sleep again. He nodded off eventually, but another sleep cycle later, another nightmare was waiting for him. It had something to do with teeth, and when Jonathan woke up again, he was covered in goosebumps.

He slept well only the last few hours of the night, and as he woke with the sun, he realized the best sleep he’d gotten was after Nancy must have woken up for school.

At least the three hour time difference was good for something.

Fuck, and he had to go to _school_ today too. There wasn’t enough coffee in the entire state to get him through it.

“Are you _sure_ you’re okay to drive?” Will asked when he got in the back seat, letting El take shotgun.

Putting on as chipper a voice as he could muster, Jonathan said, “Yeah, sure! I’m great. Let’s go find our new school!”

El gave him a look, so Jonathan toned it down a few notches.

“Directions say left out of the parking lot, don’t they?”

Looking down at the paper Joyce had given her, El nodded. “Left first.”

Jonathan made sure the way was clear no fewer than three times before leaving the motel parking lot. He could do this. He could do this.

He could do this for the next seven months. He had to be here. His mom couldn’t take care of things on her own. She needed him, at least until they all got settled in the new house. So Jonathan would do what needed to be done.

As Jonathan followed his brother and their new sister into the school, he said a little prayer of thanks that his siblings were both too young for souldreams. They deserved to be able to enjoy this new opportunity, away from Hawkins and all the baggage that came with it. Jonathan wouldn’t wish these nights of terror and the waking sense of dread that followed him all day on anyone. Not even his worst enemy.

But he was gonna get through it. Because he had to, no matter how painful it was.

“The first day was…” Jonathan said over the phone with a sigh that made Nancy wish she could hug all the sadness out of him. “It sucked. I fell asleep twice. I have _no idea_ what’s going on in any of my classes.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Nancy replied, anxiously wrapping the telephone cord around her fingers. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

“A few hours. After you woke up, I think.”

“Was it the one about the theater? And the dragon?”

Jonathan hummed. “That one, the one about the mildewy basement, the one about the _teeth._ There were just _so many_ , and I don’t even have my own room, so I have to worry about waking everyone else up.”

God, he didn’t sound like he was doing very well at all, and Nancy felt for him. Something struck her as odd, too. “I don’t remember one about teeth.”

“Be glad you don’t,” he said with a darkly sarcastic chuckle.

“Okay, not to give you too much hope, but my mom is going to try convincing my dad to let you move in with us.” Nancy held her breath as she waited for his response.

Eventually she had to take a breath, and that’s when Jonathan sighed and then spoke. “I’m not sure I could come back. We’re still at the motel, not even at the house. And how is my mom supposed to afford the house without me working too?”

Nancy pouted and said, “You’re not going to be able to live like this for much longer. We’re _meant_ to be together.”

“Yeah, I know. But—”

“You could work here. Send your mom money. I know you want to take care of them, but they’re _not_ your soulmate.”

Jonathan’s words were clipped as he replied. “I _know_ that, but they _are_ my family, Nancy. Please don’t ask me to do this. I’m barely holding on as it is.”

Regret and shame made Nancy’s face hot. “Sorry. I’m sorry, honey. I get that there’s no good options.”

“Yeah,” he said, sighing again.

Something else occurred to her then. “You only got a couple hours of sleep?”

“Mm. Something like that. Three or four, maybe?”

Doing the math in her head, Nancy told him, “I think I got at least six.”

His voice droll, Jonathan said, “Congratulations.”

“No, what I mean is—” Nancy shifted her feet underneath her as she tried to put her thoughts into words. “You are just as far away from me as I am from you.”

“Obviously.”

“So why are the nightmares stealing so much more of your sleep?

“I—” he said, before stopping himself, like he had to think a moment before really responding. Then he said, “Maybe it’s combined with the stress of the move? Sleeping in a place I’m not familiar with?”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Nancy admitted. “How long until you move into the house?”

“ _Two weeks_.” The weariness dripped from his words and Nancy’s heart broke all over again.

“Maybe when you get them settled? A month or two? Can I ask you again then?”

Jonathan was silent for a long moment, during which Nancy feared she’d crossed a line. She was just about to take it back before he said, “Yeah. Yeah, you can ask me again then.”

She hated how fragile things felt between them, and how she wasn’t sure what to talk about, or if she should let Jonathan try to take a nap or something.

“Tell me what happened today,” Jonathan said, rustling around like he was getting comfortable. “I want to know every single detail.”

Nancy laughed, keeping the sound soft so she wouldn’t startle him and break the fragile truce he’d called. “Well, when I got up, Mike was in the bathroom, so I had to go eat _before_ I got ready. Holly found a piece of scrap paper in my hair.”

“How’d it get in your hair?”

“I was brainstorming in bed,” she explained, laying back on her pillows and looking up at the ceiling as she spoke. “I didn’t like any of them, so I tore up the sheet of paper. So _that_ was embarrassing. Then…”

Nancy continued talking until she heard Jonathan’s breathing even out, like he’d fallen asleep. Nancy was tempted to join him, but she knew if she did, the nightmares would start for both of them. So, she kept talking softly, hoping the sound of her voice would help keep Jonathan asleep.

~*~

For a house with so many fancy things in it, the Harrington house was surprisingly easy to break into. The sliding glass door by the pool was unlocked. Because she knew Steve startled easily and she didn’t want to accidentally sneak up on him, Robin called out from the threshold, “Hello? Anybody home?”

Nothing.

Maybe there _wasn’t_ anyone home. But where the hell would Steve have gone without his car when he was _supposed_ to be meeting her at the diner for lunch? Not anywhere on the first floor, it turned out.

“Harrington?” she called up the stairs as she climbed them. “Are you up here?”

The first room she found was obviously a guest room, and the other had to be the master bedroom. There was only one door left.

“Steve?” she said as he knocked. “Are you in there?”

After a vague noise that sounded sufficiently Steve-ish, Robin closed her eyes and opened the door. “Are you decent?”

“Mm-yeah,” he said, and when Robin opened her eyes, all she could see was a human-shaped lump under dark-colored bedding. The room itself was dim, all the shades closed and the lights off. “You okay?”

From under the covers, Steve asked, “Wha’ time iss’it?”

“It’s two o’clock in the afternoon,” she said with sarcastic cheer. Thinking whatever this was had gone on long enough, she crossed the room and opened the shades. “Why the hell are you still asleep? You were supposed to meet me an _hour_ ago.”

Flipping down the covers to reveal his face, Steve said, “Shit. I totally forgot.”

“What is _with_ you lately?” she asked, opening the shades on the other window before sitting on the foot of his bed. Since she was a kind person, she didn’t ask what psychopath had bought curtains that matched the unsettlingly-plaid wallpaper in his room. Instead, she asked, “Do you need to go to the doctor or something? You keep falling asleep at work, too.”

“ _One_ time,” he insisted, pushing his hands back through his hair as he sat up. “I fell asleep at work _once_.”

“That’s one more time than I’ve ever fallen asleep at work, which is coincidentally one too many.” Raising her eyebrows at him, Robin smacked his leg. “Spill! What’s going on?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Duh. But _why_? Why now?”

He gave her a long, reluctant look before admitting, “I’ve been having nightmares. Like all sorts of crazy shit. And even when I’m awake, I can’t seem to shake the feeling of them.”

Excitement bubbled up in Robin’s chest. “You know what this means, right?”

“I tried smoking before bed, but that just made them worse.”

Rolling her eyes, Robin smacked Steve’s leg again. “No, you idiot! You’re having souldreams!”

Steve frowned, then gestured at Robin. “Weren’t you just telling me the other day that soulmates are bullshit?”

“Don’t listen to _me_!” Robin cried, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. “I’m just bitter I don’t have one yet. You’re _souldreaming_!”

Steve opened his mouth, then closed it again with a deep frown. “I don’t— I don’t remember anyone. From the dreams, I mean.”

“They’re nightmares, though?”

Steve nodded.

“That means your soulmate is far away,” Robin said thoughtfully.

“Everyone knows that, Rob—”

“Ooh—” she interrupted. “What if they’re from another country? A beautiful French girl? Or even a Canadian one?”

“It’s not _Keith_!” Steve raised his hands in mock-victory.

Robin laughed so hard she snorted. “Oh, no! All my plans! Ruined!”

With a giggle, Steve fell back onto his pillows. “If it’s someone far away, I probably haven’t met them yet. I wonder what they’re like?”

A thought occurred to Robin, and it was just evil enough to share. “You know who just left town, don’t you?”

“Who?” Steve asked, but then Robin saw his face change when he figured it out. “ _Jonathan_?”

Robin grinned widely and nodded.

Shaking his head, Steve said, “No, he and Nancy are soulmates. It can’t be him.”

“Oh, what if it’s his sister?” Robin poked Steve’s foot. “The one with superpowers.”

“Gross! El’s like, five years younger than me! That _never_ happens.”

“Hardly ever,” Robin agreed, remembering it was a big deal when Becca Murphy’s soulmate ended up being three years younger than her.

“How am I gonna figure it out?”

“I guess,” Robin said, looking around his room, “You have to try to remember your dreams better. Keep a pen and paper next to your bed and write down everything before you finish waking up and lose it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, looking around like he was lost.

“In the meantime, I’m starving. Get dressed so we can eat before work starts!”

With a smile, Steve nodded. “Sure!”

~*~

The lights around Jonathan flashed wildly. His heartbeat in his ears was all he could hear. “Where is it?” he cried out. “Nancy, where is it?”

Nancy, her shoulder warm against his back, replied but he couldn’t understand what she said. Then she cried out, “Jonathan!”

He turned to look, finding her eyes wide and her gun up. Jonathan followed her line of sight, but he wasn’t fast enough. The demogorgon knocked him down and stood on him, the petals of its face unfurling as it prepared to eat him. Cold drool dripped down onto Jonathan’s face. He turned away, disgusted and terrified.

No, he remembered this. It had happened before, right? Any second now—

BAM!

Steve whacked the demogorgon with Jonathan’s bat. It fell off Jonathan and turned to confront Steve, who was ready for it. He beat it back toward the trap in the hallway.

Jonathan coughed, and the wheel of the lighter was rough against his finger as he lit it and tossed it onto the gas-soaked carpet. The heat of the fire was familiar, too. This had happened before.

Jonathan opened his eyes. The clock on the motel nightstand said it was four in the morning. Almost seven in Hawkins.

It was still too early to compare notes with Nancy. Had that just been a bad memory, or had it been a souldream? If it _was_ a souldream, why was Steve there? Was he just there because he’d been there when the memory first happened?

Jonathan had to try to get more sleep, but two hours passed and he was still awake, still thinking about the dream that had been a memory.

Getting out of bed, Jonathan put on a sweatshirt and went out to the pay phone by the motel office.

Like she’d been waiting for him to call, Nancy picked up after the first ring. “Are you okay?”

“Did you have the dream? When we fought the demogorgon in my house?”

“Yeah,” Nancy said, the word more a sigh than anything else.

“We don’t usually dream memories. It was all exactly the same.”

“I can still feel the gun in my hands.”

Just because he had to know, Jonathan asked, “Was Steve in the dream for you, too? Like he was when it happened?”

Nancy was silent for a moment before she said, “I don’t— I don’t remember him being there.”

“Right. Must’ve just been my version of the memory.” Jonathan sighed, pushing a hand into his hair, trying to get a grip on reality. “Are you okay?”

“We can’t keep doing this,” Nancy said, and Jonathan heard crying in her voice. “I know I wasn’t supposed to ask yet, but… We’re not meant to be apart.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

“Yes!” Jonathan cried. “Every minute I’m here and you’re _there_? It’s agony!”

“So come home.” Nancy sniffled and Jonathan hated himself for making her cry.

Not knowing what else to say, he promised her, “Soon. El and Will have almost finished their first week at school. Mom’s job is going well. What about your dad? Will he let me stay?”

“I’ll ask him again today,” Nancy told him. “I’ll _make_ him say yes.”

Jonathan had faith she’d be successful. If he was lucky, he’d only have to be here another week. “Good luck,” he told her, wishing he could kiss her cheek, just once. 

“You too,” Nancy replied, sniffling again.

~*~

After telling Jonathan she loved him, Nancy hung up the phone. She didn’t think chances were very good that he would _actually_ be back with her soon. He felt too much responsibility toward his family. Maybe Nancy simply had to go to him.

She had no idea why she’d lied about seeing Steve in the demogorgon dream. He’d been there. He’d saved Jonathan from the monster. He’d asked Nancy if she was okay.

That _hadn’t_ happened the first time around.

Why had the dream changed? If it was one she and Jonathan had shared, why had Steve been in it? Usually the other occupants of souldreams were faceless. Non-people. They didn’t _matter_ the way Steve had mattered to Nancy in the dream.

What if it was soulbond psychosis setting in? What if Nancy started hallucinating while she was awake?

Nancy tried to put it out of her mind, since it was Saturday and—

She didn’t have anyone outside her family to spend Saturday with. She’d been so focused on her soulbond with Jonathan, she’d forgotten to maintain her other friendships. Part of the problem was the fact that most of the people in this town didn’t know what had happened, didn’t know how ruthless Nancy’d had to become to protect the people she loved. The only other people her age who knew were Steve and Robin. Something about the memory-dream she and Jonathan shared had Nancy reluctant to see Steve at all. What if—

No. That couldn’t be.

It had just been a memory their brains had turned into a nightmare. It wasn’t any more complicated than that.

So, Nancy reorganized her room and hung out with her mother and baby sister. She went to bed that night unable to fall asleep, despite her fatigue. She didn’t want to dream. Not again. Not when all the dreams were terror after unending terror. She’d had enough!

Eventually, Nancy’s body made the decision for her and she nodded off. The dream she found herself in happened at school. The alarms were blaring and people rushed around without purpose. She spotted Steve in the crowd and followed him, calling out. “Steve! Steve, what’s going on?”

He looked back, his eyes meeting hers for just a second before the crowd of people separated them. Steve’s voice rose over the din of the sirens and the crowd. “Nancy! Look out! Behind you!”

Nancy turned and the thing she saw was as tall as the ceiling. It had dark fur and long claws and it was coming for her!

“Nancy, run!”

She turned and ran toward Steve, taking the hand he offered, letting him pull her along. They made some headway, but still the thing came, its footsteps heavy enough to make the school shake, make the rumble of the ground pull her stomach down toward her shoes.

“In here,” Steve cried, pulling Nancy into a dark closet. She held onto him tightly, barely able to breathe.

The rumbling steps came closer, and closer, and closer, until they finally passed. As the footsteps moved away, something occurred to her.

“Where’s Jonathan?”

Breathing fast, Steve whispered, “He’s in California, remember?”

That didn’t make sense. How could he be in California? He was her _soulmate_. He wouldn’t go that far without her.

“No, he’s got to be somewhere,” Nancy put her hand on the door knob. “I have to find him before that thing does.

“No!” Steve hissed, but Nancy didn’t listen to him.

She opened the door and the monster was right there, _waiting for her_. Nancy screamed as she woke up, sitting up and reaching for the light right away.

Everything was in the right place; nothing else in the house made noise. Nancy was safe.

That didn’t mean she wanted to go back to sleep anytime soon. Huffing, she pulled on the sweatshirt she’d stolen from Jonathan and went to her desk.

The thing that really bothered her was the fact that Steve had been in the dream, but Jonathan hadn’t been. And it wasn’t just a dream, but a nightmare. It was the kind that left her with a deep sense of unease and an undeniable need to go find her soulmate as soon as possible.

~*~

Steve woke up with Nancy’s scream in his ears. He tried to tell himself that it was just a stupid nightmare, just his stupid brain finally processing all the shit he’d been through.

He still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very wrong. Nancy was in danger and he _knew_ if he ignored it and something happened to her, he’d never forgive himself. It reminded him of the feeling he’d had when he almost left Nancy to get eaten by the demogorgon. He’d gone back then. He should go to her now, shouldn’t he?

Unable to settle back down, Steve grabbed his wallet and his car keys and went downstairs. He grabbed his coat from the closet and stuffed his feet into the first pair of shoes he found. It was still dark out, but the horizon grew lighter with each passing minute.

Steve thought maybe he should wait before going over to Nancy’s, but he couldn’t stand sitting there not _knowing._

It wasn’t even six thirty on a Sunday morning when Steve pulled up in front of Nancy’s house. Her bedroom light was on, and Steve thought about climbing up to her window. Ultimately, he decided against it. If this was what he thought it was, he didn’t want to keep anything a secret. This deserved to happen out in the light.

Taking a deep breath, Steve opened his car door and got out. He walked up the driveway and put himself in front of the door. It was the memory of Nancy’s scream that finally got Steve to knock on it.

No one answered after a minute, so Steve knocked again. It was only after the third time that the door opened, Mrs. Wheeler standing there in her bathrobe.

“Steven?” she asked, deep concern on her face. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I–” he said, not sure how to phrase this request. Then he looked past Mrs. Wheeler and saw Nancy standing on the stairs. “I had a dream we were in school. We were running away from a monster. We hid, but you wanted to go find Jonathan.”

For a long moment, Steve thought he was wrong. It really was just a bad dream he’d had all on his own. He mumbled an apology and turned away.

Nancy called after him, “Wait!” She joined her mother at the door, saying, “When I opened the door to go find him, the monster got me.”

Steve stared at her for a long moment before asking, “Did we just–”

Nancy nodded. “We shared a dream.”

“But you and Jonathan–” He cut himself off when he remembered a dream he’d had the other night, about the demogorgon. Both Jonathan and Nancy had been in that one. “My nightmares started when he left.”

“Holy shit!” Nancy stepped closer to Steve, grabbing his left wrist. “You’re ours!”

“Steven, why don’t you come into the house,” Mrs. Wheeler said, opening the door wider. “I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, letting Nancy tug him over the threshold. “Wow. Yeah, a lot to talk about!”

The smile Nancy gave him was muted, like something was wrong.

Duh. Of course something was wrong. Jonathan wasn’t here. The terrible ache in Steve’s chest wouldn’t subside until he got to hold Jonathan, too. Stopping just inside, Steve said, “We have to go to him.”

Nancy met Steve’s eyes for a sharp, tense moment before she nodded. “Go home. Pack a bag. I’ll be ready by the time you get back.”

Steve didn’t wait for Mrs. Wheeler to give them the okay. He just nodded once and squeezed Nancy’s hand before he left, jogging back to his car.

He had _soulmates_!

~*~

Early Sunday morning, Jonathan woke with Nancy’s scream in his ears. It was the middle of the night, but Jonathan couldn’t take it anymore. He got out of bed and went to the bathroom, brushing his teeth and then getting dressed. He took the school books out of his backpack, shoved in a couple changes of clothes and his toothbrush, and quickly wrote a note. No one woke up or asked him what he was doing, so he let everyone sleep and slipped out of the room without saying goodbye.

Opening his wallet under the motel sign so he could see, he figured he had just enough gas money to get back to Hawkins. Though, he might need to spend a few dollars on something to eat at some point. Well, he’d get as far as he could and then call Nancy collect to come get him the rest of the way. That could work.

Jonathan was desperate enough to try it.

The gas gauge was starting to get low by the time he got to Barstow, so he filled up at a station just off the interstate. He didn’t want to run out of gas halfway through the Mohave desert, even if he was sticking to the interstate. He was getting low again around Flagstaff, so he stopped and filled up. He bought the cheapest cup of soda and burger he could find and then just... kept driving.

Just past Albuquerque was another stop for gas, but then the sun started going down, and the chronic lack of sleep made it hard for Jonathan to keep himself awake.

Jonathan made it as far as Amarillo, Texas, before he gave in. He remembered the emergency $20 his mom had put in his car before the trip west, so he dug that out of the glove compartment and bought a night in a motel just outside the city.

After more than sixteen hours of driving, Jonathan had nothing left. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out.

~*~

“You’ll be careful?” Karen asked as Nancy put her bag on her shoulder and opened the door. “You’ll call me when you stop for the night?”

“I’ll call,” Nancy said, the early morning air cold and full of dew. “I promise.”

Karen pulled Nancy into a hug. “Remember. You’re both low on sleep. Don’t overdo it. I need you to come back in one piece.”

“We will.”

When her mother finally let go, Nancy hurried down the driveway and got into Steve’s car. Throwing her bag into the back, she told him, “Let’s go find our soulmate.”

Steve gave a wave to Karen before smiling over at Nancy. “Let’s go.”

The day passed in a blur of mile after mile of road. They skipped breakfast, but had an early lunch just before St. Louis. They had dinner in Tulsa and passed through Oklahoma City after dark.

Nancy was driving as they crossed the border into Texas, when fatigue caught up with her. She made it almost another hour before she told Steve, “We have to stop.”

He didn’t respond, and when Nancy looked over, he was asleep. She pulled into the next motel she found and shook Steve awake. “We have to sleep for the night. Let’s get a room.”

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his face and pushing his hand back through his hair.

When they settled down in bed to sleep, Nancy took Steve’s hand and held it in hers. It was almost like they hadn’t broken up a year ago, and they weren’t going to sleep expecting nightmares to wake them back up at any moment.

Nancy closed her eyes and tried not to dream.

~*~

Jonathan slept soundly, for _hours_ , a bone-deep weariness pulling him into the mattress, keeping him there as his body rested for what felt like the first time in weeks.

When he dreamed, he was walking along the bank of a river, the flat prairie spread out around him. Up ahead, Nancy was sitting on a rock, watching the river. Steve laid in the grass at her feet, dozing in the sunshine.

Jonathan drew Nancy to her feet and hugged her. “I’m coming to you,” he said, resting his forearms on her shoulders, tangling his fingers in her hair.

“You never should have left,” she said, and Jonathan figured this was where the dream was about to turn into a nightmare. Nancy pointed down at Steve and said, “He started dreaming.”

Jonathan looked at Steve as he blinked and opened his eyes, squinting up at them. “There you are!” He smiled.

Why wasn’t this dream turning? Why wasn’t it becoming a nightmare?

Steve stood up and joined them, his hand warm on the back of Jonathan’s neck. He looked around. “Is this what they’re normally like?”

“What?” Jonathan asked, looking around. “Rivers? Riverbanks?”

“Dreams,” Steve said, brushing Jonathan’s face with his thumb.

It felt nice, but Jonathan wasn’t sure what was going on. He looked to Nancy, who was holding onto his waist, her sharp chin on his shoulder.

“Nancy?” he asked, unable to find the words to express all the questions he wanted to ask. Eventually, he told her, “I’m so tired.”

“We are too.” Nancy backed up, taking Jonathan’s hand and tugging him toward the river. “The grass is soft here.” She sat down, letting go of Jonathan’s hand and stretching out in the sun. “We should take a nap.”

Jonathan looked over at Steve, who nodded and gestured for him to join Nancy. He wanted to trust the dream, to trust that this was like how it used to be before he left Hawkins. Laying down next to Nancy, he told her, “I’m not home yet.”

“It’s okay.” Nancy rolled toward him, putting her hand on his cheek. “We’ll see you soon.”

Steve laid down on Jonathan’s other side, his arm heavy, but warm on Jonathan’s chest.

“Why are you cuddling me?” Jonathan asked. “Since when is this okay with you?”

With a chuckle, Steve said, “Just go back to sleep, Jonathan. I’ll see you soon.” Then he closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose against Jonathan’s shoulder.

Between the warmth coming from the sun, and the warmth coming from Nancy and Steve on either side of him, Jonathan felt comfortable enough to just… give in. He closed his eyes and left the dream as peacefully as he’d come to it.

~*~

When Steve woke up, there was morning light coming in the motel room window. Nancy was still asleep next to him, and though he didn’t want to wake her, he also didn’t want to wait long to get back on the road. By midnight, they could be to Jonathan’s new place. They could tell him — for real, not just in a dream — that Steve was his soulmate, too! Steve couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this excited about _anything_.

Driving this far the day before had tried his patience again and again. He’d kept himself from lashing out at Nancy — who was _also_ his soulmate — but it had been several hard-fought battles won. Maybe if he got some coffee and some breakfast, he could entice her to get up and get ready for the day.

Yeah, that could work.

Steve couldn’t quite remember if he’d dreamt anything the night before, but he felt so much happier, so much calmer waking up today than he had the day before. Maybe his soulbond knew he was headed for Jonathan, and that’s why it hadn’t bothered him last night.

As he got out of bed and got dressed, Steve thought he might have vaguely remembered something about a river, and cuddling. He smiled to himself, hoping Jonathan would allow non-dream cuddling as well. That sounded nice.

So did other things.

When he reached the door, Steve stopped and took a second to just _look_ at Nancy. He’d known, even when they first started going out, that she was going to be important to him. His soul must have known she was one of his soulmates, even before the dreaming started. God, he loved her so much.

He couldn’t wait to love Jonathan just as fiercely.

Just as much as Nancy obviously loved him.

Steve just wished he could have started dreaming with Jonathan before he decided to pick a fight with Jonathan over Nancy. He hated the fact that he’d let his jealousy sour his relationship with one of his soulmates. It was stupid. He’d been stupid.

Now he just had to spend the rest of his life making it up to both of them.

With that thought on his mind, Steve eased the motel room door open and left. He made it ten feet closer to the office before a car in the parking lot drew his attention. It was a rusty green Ford. Indiana license plates.

It couldn’t be, could it?

What were the chances?

Well, Steve figured when soulbonds were involved, there was no such thing as coincidence.

Just to be sure, he went up to the car and looked into the windows. Yep, that was Jonathan’s jacket, he was pretty sure. And that Hawkins High shirt on the back seat just confirmed it. This was Jonathan’s car.

So, where was Jonathan?

Steve looked over at the motel room doors. The car was parked right in front of one of them. That had to be his room, right?

Well, no time like the present. Steve went to the door and knocked on it. There wasn’t any answer a minute later. Jonathan hadn’t been sleeping much, right? Maybe he was still asleep? But to have him this _close_ and not know for sure where he was? Steve felt like he might just go out of his mind with it.

He knocked again.

There! Steve heard movement in the room, footsteps getting close to the door. This was it!

A deep, unfamiliar man’s voice said, “What do you want?”

“Oh!” Steve said, feeling his cheeks heat up with embarrassment. “Sorry! Wrong room!”

There was grumbling, but the guy didn’t open the door or anything, so Steve figured he was good.

Except he still didn’t know where Jonathan was. If Steve went back to his and Nancy’s room, if he got her help searching for Jonathan, there was a chance they could miss him entirely.

No.

Steve didn’t drive _this_ far on practically no sleep not to see his other soulmate today. So he sat on the hood of Jonathan’s car and waited.

As the sun came up, the chill of the morning started to fade away, which was good. Despite his jacket, Steve was starting to shiver. Just when he was starting to think that it would be a good idea to stand out in the parking lot and shout Jonathan’s name until he showed up, there was a noise on the second floor balcony above. A door opened.

Steve jumped to his feet and backed up so he could see the balcony that ran along all the rooms up there. The open door was the one right above his and Nancy’s room. The person who stepped through the door, his bag in hand, was Jonathan! Steve tried to call to him, but his voice stuck in his throat.

Everything was going to change. Steve had been so caught up in the excitement around realizing that he and Nancy were sharing dreams, and then the quest to find Jonathan and tell him, he hadn’t given enough thought to what would happen next.

What if Jonathan didn’t want him?

What if he thought one soulmate was enough, and Steve’s soul could just go screw itself? Steve wasn’t sure he’d survive the rejection.

Jonathan walked toward the stairwell, looking out over the parking lot casually. When he spotted Steve, he stopped short. He mumbled something that Steve couldn’t hear.

Hoping that he wasn’t setting himself up for heartbreak, Steve raised his hand and waved. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jonathan said back, wrapping his hands around the balcony railing. “What—” he started to say, but then he shook his head and pointed to the stairs. “I’ll meet you.”

Steve nodded, and he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t just _walk_ over there. Not when he could jog and get there faster. Steve was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Jonathan came down them, stopping one stair up. His voice soft, he said, “There was a river.”

With a grin, Steve remembered. He nodded and said, “It was sunny and we decided to take a nap.”

A slow, careful smile spread across Jonathan’s face. “I wasn’t sure it was real. I kept waiting for it to turn into a nightmare.”

“No nightmares last night. You were in the room right above ours.” Steve told him, turning to gesture toward it. When he turned back, he didn’t have any warning before there were lips on his and arms around him. He made a noise of surprise, but got his arms around Jonathan well enough to squeeze him tightly as they kissed.

When Jonathan pulled back, just a little, Steve couldn’t help but giggle a little, with happiness and relief. “I thought for sure you were gonna be mad at me.”

“Why?” Jonathan asked, taking the last step down.

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. For, like, butting in on what you and Nancy have.”

“If we weren’t supposed to be together,” Jonathan said, taking Steve’s hand in his, “we wouldn’t be sharing dreams.”

Feeling more giddy than he had any right to, Steve nodded. He tugged on Jonathan’s hand and said, “C’mon. Nancy’s this way.”

~*~

Nancy felt like she _should_ be getting up. It was light out. Steve wasn’t in bed anymore. Except, the bed was softer than she would’ve expected from an eighteen-dollar-a-night motel room. Either that, or she was so low on sleep that her body was begging her to stay in bed and get just a few minutes more.

When the door opened, Nancy forced herself to turn over and look at it. Steve came through the door, a surprisingly wide grin on his face.

“What’s going on?” Nancy asked, sitting up in bed.

Reaching back through the door, Steve said, “Look who I found.”

For a second, Nancy was afraid Steve had made a new friend or something and had brought a stranger back to their room, where she was sleeping, in her underwear and a t-shirt. Except, it wasn’t a stranger that Steve pulled through the door. It was—

“Jonathan!” Nancy scrambled out of the bed, almost tripping when the sheet got wrapped around her ankle. By the time she made it over to Jonathan, throwing her arms around him, Steve had closed the door behind them. “How? I mean… _How_?”

Jonathan chuckled and kissed her before saying, “I couldn’t stand it any longer. I was driving to Hawkins. Stopped here for the night.”

“We were driving to California,” Nancy told him, looking over to Steve. She reached for him, pulling him into the hug. “Steve is—”

“I know,” Jonathan said, letting go of Nancy with his right hand and putting it on Steve’s neck, caressing Steve’s jaw with his thumb. “No wonder the nightmares were so bad for me, huh? I was far away from _both_ of you.”

“You’re not going back, are you?” Nancy asked him, terrified of having to spend any longer like she’d spent the past two weeks. “You _have_ to come home with us.”

“Your dad?” Jonathan asked, and Nancy’s heart fell.

Shaking her head, she said, “I haven’t gotten the okay from him yet.”

“Well,” Steve said, drawing their attention to him. Putting his hand over Jonathan’s he said, “I mean, you could move in with me. If you want. I’ve got more than enough space.”

“Would your parents mind?” Jonathan asked him.

Steve shrugged. “I doubt it. Not when I tell them you’re my soulmate.” He gave a soft laugh. “You’re my _soulmate_!”

Jonathan moved closer into Steve’s space, kissing him. Then he said, “I guess we can learn to live together sooner, rather than later.”

“Wait,” Nancy said, having a realization.

A concerned frown on his face, Steve asked, “What? You don’t want Jonathan to live with me? Nance, you’re gonna have to l—”

“No, don’t be stupid,” she told him. “I think it’s a great idea for you guys to live together until my parents let me move in too.”

Jonathan squeezed her gently. “Then what’s the problem, Nance?”

“Since we figured it out yesterday morning, I haven’t kissed Steve at all.”

“Oh,” Steve said with half a smile. “Yeah, I guess you haven’t. We got so wrapped up in finding J—”

Nancy grabbed Steve’s head and pulled him down far enough to kiss him. Jonathan laughed, and it was a joyful sound. When Nancy let Steve go, she couldn’t help but giggle a little, too. She was just _so_ happy.

Steve seemed to be slightly stunned, standing there blinking for a second before meeting Nancy’s eyes, then Jonathan’s. Then a sly smile crept onto his lips, and he said, “I think I missed that one. How’s it go again?”

Nancy laughed and kissed him again.

~*~

A hand shaking his shoulder and Nancy’s voice in his ear, Jonathan woke to her saying, “Time to wake up, sweetheart. We’ve landed.”

“Already?” Jonathan asked with a yawn, stretching and opening the shade on the window next to him. The dry, snow-free landscape of southern California was a drastic change from where they’d taken off out of O’Hare. “Man, my first flight and I slept through most of it.”

“I fell asleep for a while, too,” Steve said on Nancy’s other side. He grinned at Jonathan.

He wasn’t quite sure why, until he remembered sharing a dream with Steve. They’d taken Nancy on a trip to Hawaii, and were sitting on the beach, drinking bright blue drinks while they waited for her to get back. Jonathan elbowed Nancy and said, “You missed a good one.”

“God, it wasn’t another sex dream, was it?”

Steve laughed and said, “No. Nothing like that.”

“There’s beaches here in California we could go to,” Jonathan said, watching out the window as they pulled up to the gate. “At least, that’s what Will says. I didn’t have enough time here before to go find any.”

“You guys dreamed about a beach?” Nancy said, pouting a little. “Man, I can’t believe I was doing _homework_ , while you guys were dreaming about the beach.”

“Maybe we can dream something just as nice tonight,” Steve said, leaning over and kissing her. As he pulled back, he met Jonathan’s eye and winked.

Chuckling, Jonathan shook his head and looked back out the window. “I can’t wait to see the house.”

“I have something to tell you,” Nancy said, and when Jonathan looked back at her, she was biting her lips together that way she did sometimes when she was nervous.

“What?” Jonathan asked, looking to Steve, but getting a confused shrug in return. “Nance?”

“I applied to UCLA,” she said. “I know you’re taking a gap year to work and everything, but I figured, you might… I didn’t mean to take you away from your family for a whole year. And there’s nothing saying I’ll even get _in_.”

“Nancy,” Jonathan said, catching her face and cupping it in his hands until she met his eyes. “You did that for me?”

Nancy nodded.

“Thank you,” he told her, making sure she really listened to his words. “I’ll follow you anywhere in the world, but if you brought me back here? So I could spend more time with my family, and not just at Christmas? I don’t even have words. I _love_ you.”

She grinned. “I love you too.”

“Hey,” Steve said, standing up as the seatbelt sign turned off. “Think your family will be waiting for us at the gate?”

“They said they would be,” Jonathan replied, taking the bag Steve handed him from the overhead compartment. “Hey, what do you guys think? A little tour of UCLA while we’re in town? Maybe look at places we might want to live next year?”

“I might not even get in,” Nancy insisted.

Steve scoffed. “Okay, Miss perfect score on the SAT. You’re getting in.”

“It wasn’t a _perfect_ score.”

Smiling, Jonathan followed his soulmates off the plane. In the jetway, Steve reached back, putting Jonathan in front of him as they went up to the terminal. This put Jonathan first through the door at the gate, in perfect position to see the sign Will and El were holding.

_Welcome home, Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve_

Jonathan couldn’t help it. He started crying. “Hey,” he said, letting his mom hug him first. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too, Jonathan,” Joyce said, and when she pulled back, she was crying too.

“Everyone’s doing good?” he couldn’t help but ask, letting Will hug him, then El. “You guys got along okay without me?”

 _“Yes_ ,” Will said, rolling his eyes. “We missed you, but we’ve been good.”

“Really good,” El added, letting Steve give her a sideways hug. “You’ll love the Christmas tree we got!”

“I’m sure I will,” Jonathan assured her with a laugh.

After she hugged Nancy, and then Steve, Joyce said, “Come on. Let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
> 
> You can find out more about me and my works over [on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/).


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